Regulators assured of autonomy in power sector

Power Minister PM Sayeed today assured full autonomy to the power regulators and said he would talk to the state governments for providing administrative and infrastructure support to the regulators.

Addressing a meeting of Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) and 22 State Electricity Regulatory Commissions, Sayeed said the central government was committed to provide full autonomy to regulatory commissions so that they could operate on professional lines.

State level regulators pointed out that political interference and lack of support from state governments hindered their performance and efficiency.

Sayeed said that the Regulatory Commissions had to perform executive functions and a developmental role also and therefore a formal and rigid judicial approach in the regulatory process, as was being followed in certain countries, need not be emulated by India.

The move away from "cost plus actuals" to light handed regulations by prescribing normative parameters was also appreciated. He emphasised the responsibility of the Electricity Regulatory Commissions to protect the interest of the consumers by laying down performance standards for utilities, preventing market domination and operationalising a speedy redressal mechanism.

Sayeed also said that with a perceptible improvement in the quality of service, higher user charges would be acceptable.

The reform process would have to focus more on elimination of inefficiency and wastage in the entire value chain and in bringing about improvement in quality of service rather than emphasising tariff increases.